And the plot thickens...

Sorry about the delay in posting. I've been rather busy, and stressed with NaNo, and I completely forgot. Nevertheless, review? If only to tell me off?


Pausing for a breath midway through his cleaning, Watanuki surveyed the damage once again. Since the last time he'd been this area of the building, far too much dust had accumulated. Watanuki sighed before attacking it once again with the duster, wondering how the hell Kyle had managed on his own. Then again, judging on the conditions of his test subjects that were referred to as "humane", the doctor obviously didn't have very high standards of living.

That, or he was lying through his teeth, which was considerably more likely.

"Watanuki," said the doctor. The addressed boy froze, having been unaware until then of the fact that he was not alone. "I am worried about you," the doctor continued in a tone of voice that promised an ill fate if the request he was about voice was not complied with or the question he wished to ask was not answered. He smiled, not the toothy smile of a crocodile but one laced with falsehood. Watanuki had a suspicion that the doctor, if unable to conceal his true expression, would still be smiling. But in a much crueler way.

"A – are you?" the indentured servant replied uneasily.

"But of course I am," the doctor replied. "How could I not be concerned at this…anomaly in behaviour? You must understand that you have been behaving quite unusually lately." Watanuki tried not to show his alarm, and tried his hardest to imagine what he could have done differently enough to attract the doctor's attention. Surely it was not a deterioration in work quality, or consumption of food. Unless the doctor somehow knew about the painkillers…

"I admit, the first few nights I had assumed it was some passing thing, perhaps a restlessness that comes with growing older. But I was rather concerned when this pattern continued over the span of a week and several days more," Kyle continued, seemingly unaware of Watanuki's sudden and almost certainly visible realisation. "It is troubling, though, to see you go without sleep. I myself have noticed your light on far beyond the time it is normally extinguished, and have been told of shouts. I can only assume that you have been suffering from some sort of affliction." Suddenly the doctor's face grew grim. "I fervently hope that is what it is, for if not…the alternative would be open betrayal. And I would so hate to be forced to deal with betrayal, especially from such hardworking, loyal assistant such as yourself, Watanuki."

Watanuki was at this moment contemplating how he could explain himself without hinting at the possibility of any contact with any other humans. He should have known that he would be heard, should have realised that there was no way in hell he would have the good fortune to go unheard at all, let alone each of the times he'd lost his cool and yelled at Doumeki. "I've had insomnia, sensei," he finally said in what he hoped was a calm voice. It would be bad if the doctor could hear the hesitation and infer that this was a lie.

"I do hope you're right," was all the doctor said about it. "But surely you know, Watanuki, of the sleeping pills located in the cabinet which you have access to. Surely it would be no problem for you to use them. I assure you that they are not in any way tainted by my experiments."

"It's just that you haven't given me permission," Watanuki replied, thinking fast. That was the one argument that had saved him in several times when he would otherwise have surely suffered the doctor's favorite forms of punishment. That and the excuse that he wasn't used to only one useful eye.

As expected, Kyle relented. "You're correct," he replied. "I shall change that. Tonight, once you have completed what work you have to do, you will take two of those pills and go back to your shed. I will expect to see the light off within moments of your arrival there. I trust your sleep will be…undisturbed." The smile disappeared. "Believe me when I say this, Watanuki. If it is not extinguished, I will be forced to believe that you have lied to me, and that you are engaging in some other activity, and thus have disobeyed me twice. I will not take well to such betrayal."

Watanuki gulped. "Yes, sir."

"Need I send someone with you to ensure that you don't fall asleep on your way home?" the doctor inquired, smile returned in full force.

"There's no need, sensei," Watanuki said, desperate to keep the alarm from his voice now. The doctor's smile widened – possibly proof that the attempt had failed – but he said nothing more on the topic.

"Report to Sector B tomorrow, if you please," he told Watanuki before sweeping out to leave his indentured servant to cleaning.

The rest of the day passed in both agonizing slowness and frightening speed, and by the end Watanuki was exhausted, both emotionally and physically – to the point that sleeping pills were redundant at best and probably not safe at all, especially considering the strength of the dosage that Kyle would prescribe to full-grown men and women who most likely were all but uncontrollable. But the doctor had insisted that pills be taken, and he would surely have his ways of knowing if the order was disobeyed, so Watanuki only stared doubtfully at the pale green pills for a minute before downing them and making his way back to the shed as quickly as he could.

They began to kick in during the last hundred-meter stretch, and he all but passed out cold in front of the shed door. But predictably, or at least predictably if Watanuki had been more lucid, a pair of hands grasped his arms and a concerned Doumeki materialized. Except the concern most likely could be attributed to Watanuki's exhaustion, as could the almost entire lack of protest. "…'M capable of walking," he muttered.

"Oh?" Doumeki asked, but did not release his grip on Watanuki's shoulders. The latter found he appreciated the help, but in his much-diminished-but-still-present horror at such a sentiment said nothing. He would accept help – this time – but he's be damned if he would show appreciation for it.

Then again, lack of appreciation didn't really seem to faze Doumeki. Had Watanuki been more awake, he might have been alarmed by the revelation. As things were, so long as he was able to sleep sometime soon, and preferably not while Doumeki was supporting him, life would be tolerable until the morning. And the morning could be sorted out then.

Once inside, Doumeki switched on the gas light to Watanuki's barely coherent protest. "Doctor said…not to," he mumbled, desperately trying not to think of what it was he was leaning against. "Or he'd send…someone…"

The light went off. "What happened?" Doumeki asked in the tone of voice that generally accompanied the moments when he was unhappy about how events were unfolding.

"Made me take sleeping pills." His eyes barely able to remain open, Watanuki edged out of the other boy's grip and in the vague direction of his sleeping corner. He collided instead with a wall, momentarily stunned by confusion more than injury. He hadn't been moving quickly. Doumeki, presumably with the same inscrutable expression he always wore, picked Watanuki up and dropped him in the correct corner before any struggles could be made. Watanuki was asleep before he could object.